This week, representatives of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation are attending one of the largest medical conferences in the world: the World Conference on Lung Cancer, organized by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. The conference which this year has an attendance of over 6,000 delegates, includes a full track dedicated to mesothelioma, attracting researchers and clinicians from all over the world to present their findings in front of their peers.
This year, we expect a few announcements about studies relating to immunotherapy, and specifically Keytruda (pembrolizumab). Both announcements will take place on Tuesday, December 6.
The conference opened yesterday with a 3-hour mesothelioma workshop in which emphasis was made on the dire need for randomized clinical trials for this particular discipline. The encouraged debates compared the EPP surgery vs. PD surgery, the effectiveness of immunotherapy, and benefits of neoadjuvant therapy. It was, however, noted that due to lack of such objective data, much of mesothelioma decision-making is made by individual clinicians based on their personal experience treating patients. In other words, the consensus emphasized the need for randomized clinical trials to add objectivity to this discussion.
This morning, the conference began with an overview of abstracts submitted to this year’s conference, and was presented by Dr. Anna Nowak from the University of Western Australia.
Please follow us on Twitter to obtain live updates from the conference www.twitter.com/curemeso
Today at @IASLC #wclc2016 Anne Tsao made a very convincing case for neo-adjuvant chemo prior to surgery.
— Meso Foundation (@curemeso) December 4, 2016
Today at @IASLC #wclc2016 Anne Tsao made a very convincing case for neo-adjuvant chemo prior to surgery.
— Meso Foundation (@curemeso) December 4, 2016
